Robie Ann Ferrer

The Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) tax is what employers pay the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to fund the unemployment program that pays eligible workers who have lost their jobs. This is separate from state unemployment taxes (SUTA). Federal regulations only require employers to pay a maximum of 6% on each employee’s first $7,000 of…

Paychex is one of the most popular choices for payroll and human resources (HR) support for businesses of all sizes—and with good reason. It has scalable and customizable plans and performs a vast range of functions to help you manage the entire employee lifecycle, from hiring to retiring. However, its pricing can grow quickly as…

The Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax generates funds for the Social Security and Medicare programs and is imposed on both employers and employees. The total tax rate is 15.3% of the employee’s gross earnings, where you and your workers each pay 6.2% for Social Security tax and 1.45% for Medicare tax. If you’d prefer…

When I Work is a popular employee scheduling software that offers time and attendance features as an add-on. Intuitive and offering a mobile app and by-user pricing, it’s a good choice for growing businesses with multiple locations. However, it may not be the best for all. Seasonal companies, single-location businesses with many employees, and those…

Every business in Oregon—even those with just one employee—is subject to the Oregon sick leave law, which requires up to 40 hours of sick time off per employee during a year. The sick leave may be paid or unpaid, depending on the size and location of your company. Even if your company is not located…

Calculating Nonperformance-based Bonuses Nonperformance bonuses are an easy way to make sure all employees share in the incentives, and it simplifies gross bonus amount calculations for you. Some common bonuses not based on performance include percent of salary, holiday bonuses, retention or sign-on incentives, and referral bonuses. Percent-of-salary bonus This is one of the most…

For very small businesses that operate in states without complex labor and tax laws, knowing how to do payroll in Excel is a good way to pay 10 or fewer employees. Since it is a completely manual approach to payroll, it does take time compared to other methods but can definitely be cost-effective for small…

Before you can set or negotiate an employee’s pay level, you’ll want to compare salaries using compensation data you’ve gathered for similar roles. The best salary comparison tools provide access to a wide range of data—from staff wages and bonuses to employee benefits—that cover many job types, skills, and positions across industries and locations. To…

Organization chart software allows you to create diagrams that display position hierarchies and job reporting relationships within your company. The best org chart software should have user-friendly and intuitive tools to make building and updating charts easy. It should include customization options, allowing you to adjust layouts and add custom data fields. It must also…

The best free applicant tracking systems (ATS) simplify job postings, filter incoming resumes and applications, and improve candidate-employer communication. A good ATS can store resumes for future reference, screen applicants, and organize and manage referral programs to boost recruitment efforts. In this guide, I evaluated eight free applicant tracking software and narrowed them down to…

The best employee scheduling software is easy to use and affordable, with compliance solutions and an auto-scheduler to help automate the process. In addition to offering an intuitive schedule builder, it should have mobile apps to help managers save time while providing employees with self-service tools for requesting schedule swaps and viewing work shifts online….

Employee turnover rate is the percentage of employees that leave a company in a specific period, such as for the month, quarter, or year. The process for how to calculate employee turnover rate is fairly straightforward. Simply divide the number of employees that leave within a specific period by the average number of employees that…